All you need is love.

I'll be honest, I am not a big Beatles fan... yet. This isn't because I'm unaware of their brilliance as a musical group; nor is it a matter of being unaware of the wide variety of great music in the world. I'm just a little late, thats all. Of all the days in my life I've never taken enough time out of my day to truly sit back and just chill out while listening to a few tunes from various musicians. I usually hear something by accident in a movie, commercial or on a game I've purchased and conduct an occasionally elaborate search to find it for sale. I'm thankful that a solo trip to the local movie theater last summer produced my desire to see "Across the Universe" once it was released. I missed its cinema debut, but waited patiently for the DVD to finally arrive. Once I began to watch I wasn't immediately blown away by the story, but as it went on I found myself enamored with the overall beauty of everything put together. Of course the music stood out above everything else, but the images seriously started to put me into a trance. I could've stopped watching at any moment, but I found myself singing along with every single one of the songs, without even knowing all the words. This isn't a review, just an expression of how much this movie made me realize I loved music. It can make us feel sad, happy, excited, even ecstatic in my particular case. I'll tell you another thing; I've toyed with the idea of studying the craft of acting, but its movies like this that make me not want to do it and I'll tell you why. Because, movies like this make me realize just how beautiful life can be with all its pains, pities and perks. I used to be quite rebellious about this sort of thing, seeing everyone living "normal" lives, having "real" jobs, the house, the car, the big television and asking myself and them if they've ever tried to chase any of their dreams from their youth. I took a deep, long look into myself and at the individuals around me and was surprised when I discovered just how beautiful a "normal" life can be. All you need is love.

"I'm cleaning up and I'm moving on, going straight and choosing life. I'm looking forward to it already. I'm going to be just like you: the job, the family, the fucking big television, the washing machine, the car, the compact disc and electrical tin opener, good health, low cholesterol, dental insurance, mortgage, starter home, leisurewear, luggage, three-piece suite, DIY, game shows, junk food, children, walks in the park, nine to five, good at golf, washing the car, choice of sweaters, family Christmas, indexed pension, tax exemption, clearing the gutters, getting by, looking ahead, to the day you die."

-Mark "Rent Boy"/"Rents" Renton, from Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting as adapted by Danny Boyle

The days of jammin' in the garage are coming to an end.

If you don't have the time or dedication to learn to play the guitar, piano or drums. Do yourself a favor: run out and get two iPhones and a DS with Electroplankton. Grab two friends just as lazy as you are while they're in the middle of playing WoW (preferably while their character's on the verge of reaching the next level and they're smelling slightly of wee) and you've just officially formed a band.

Indie game design at some of its finest.

If you were at GDC this year, you probably heard whispers of a crazy-looking little game that mixes a concept first iterated by Super Paper Mario for the Wii with a world of floating structures and a charming little albino creature sporting a red fez. I am talking about KOKOROMI's "Fez". In Fez you play the role of Gomez, a small creature who has lived his whole life in 2D only to discover that there's a great big world out there and guess what... its all in 3D. Fez has already been nominated for the "Design Innovation" and "Excellence in Audio" awards at this year's 10th Annual Independent Games Festival. Hopefully the guys and gals at KOKOROMI will get picked up by some larger developer and get to make a salary for what they're doing. I'd personally like to see them get funded to start their own company though. Gaze upon their excellence below:


You can visit their blog, KOKOROMI Collective, to get more in-depth and personal updates of Fez.
http://www.kokoromi.org/fez

Or if you're interested in the other finalists at the 10th Annual Independent Games Festival, you can visit:
http://www.igf.com/02finalists.html#Fez

Team Ico's next project a no-show at GDC '08.

Unfortunately, the one game that I was truly looking forward to seeing at this year's GDC in some form or another was a no-show. However, I admire Team Ico's patience in creating their games. Both ICO and Shadow of the Colossus took quite a few years to get from concept to completion and both became examples of how video games could be looked upon as an art form. I'm expecting the same from their 3rd project. Just looking at what they did with the PS2's processing power makes wonder just how incredible this game is going to look and feel once it's finished. Below is a concept video made for Shadow of the Colossus shown at the DICE Summit back in 2003. This was made single-handedly by the game's creator and Team ICO director Fumito Ueda. Team Ico's current staff consists of around 20 people hand-picked by Ueda himself, all of whom are currently working on the next project.

Crazy Contraptions!

I used to have this huge obsession with Mouse Trap when I was very little. I'd speed into the living room every time I heard the commercial come on. It was all just to see the little metal ball go down the ramp and cause all sorts of crazy things to happen. Of course once my folks actually got me one I was completely disappointed in the thing and forgot about it before the day of purchase was even out. However, a few years ago I happened to stumble upon a very interesting television show from the good ol' Land of the Rising Sun. The name of the show is Pitagora Suitchi, roughly translated as PythagorasSwitch. Yes, its just one word with a cap in the middle. Throughout the show there are many segments that are way beyond borderline stupid, which means they go ahead and cross into just plain stupid. But, there is one little charming segment that made me feel like I was 4 all over again. These little segments were called Pythagorean Device and featured what are more commonly know as Rube Goldberg machines. They were very similar to Mouse Trap, but on a much, much bigger scale. I've posted a video below for you all to enjoy whenever you're feeling kind of blue, braindead or just bored. I think you'll find yourself trapped in their charm. Teehee... get it? Trapped. ...Yeah. Just watch the video.

Under My Skin

I first heard of Jun Matsui after watching the interviews on the special edition DVD for Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Tetsuya Nomura, the film's director, creator of Kingdom Hearts and character designer for Final Fantasy VII, VIII, X and X-2, spoke very highly of Matsui, mentioning that he bought clothes from his shop, LUZ (stands for "Life Under Zen"). Being so impressed with Matsui's work as a clothing designer and discovering that he was also a professional tattoo artist prompted Nomura to ask his to design a tattoo for the character of Barret. Since hearing this great little story and seeing Matsui's great, but small amount of work on Barret also prompted me to seek out more of his work. I'm not big on seeing lots of tattoos on females, but this dude can draw some of the sexiest tattoos I've ever seen on women. I'm not talking the little kind that you put on your ankle or lower back, I'm talking the huge kind. Yet, he still somehow manages to make them all incredibly appealing. I suppose its his odd mixture of dark lines and shapes that seem almost Mayan-like in origin combined with the beautiful and tasteful way in which in he places them on their bodies. Take a look for yourself at his website and continue to give this guy the support and street cred he deserves:

http://www.lifeunderzen.com/

As he says: "Every day is a good day."

KANEDA!!

RASSERA RASSERA RASSERASSE RASSERA RASSE RASSE RASSE RASSE RASSE RASSE RASSERA
If those words don't strike a nostalgic feeling in you, then you haven't been exposed to the brilliance that is Katsuhiro Otomo's 1988 animation masterpiece AKIRA. Originally a manga penned by Otomo from 1982 through 1985 in Japan's Young Magazine, Akira was an absorbing mix of cyberpunk action topped off by a powerful and emotional story of friendship. An animated version directed by Otomo was released in Japan in 1988. Now journalists have received the official word that a live-action adaptation of Akira is in pre-production with Leonardo DiCaprio and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the roles of protagonists Kaneda and Tetsuo (or their Americanized counterparts). The story will be split into two seperate movies, the first dealing with volumes 1-3 of the manga and the second dealing with 4-6. The films will supposedly take place in the city of New Manhattan, built by the Japanese 31 years after a nuclear war. Leonardo DiCaprio will also be serving as one of the producers on the project with Gary Whitta writing the screenplay and Ruari Robinson directing. This will be Robinson's first big-budget picture. He's got one hell of a fan-base to live up to. But, fear not, as Robinson is an avid anime and manga fan who just so happens to be more than a fanboy full of pipe dreams, which I believe he proves in his short film "The Silent City", which can be viewed below. Akira is set for release in Summer of '09.

Lost in an enthralling odyssey...

This game is currently consuming most of my time aside from college. Hironobu Sakaguchi's latest work of art is the story of a man who has has lived for 1,000 years under the "curse" of immortality. The story was penned by famous Japanese novelist, Kiyoshi Shigematsu. While I am playing the North American version, I can't help but admire the subtle beauty of the Japanese cover art. In this piece by Takehiko Inoue, through Kaim's eyes you can truly see the many burdens and sorrows of a man who has lived through a 1,000 lifetimes of endless wandering. I'll give my full review once I've completed this 4-disc epic.

And thus I grant you passage.

Greetings and salutations to everyone. Welcome to my first blog. I hope that you will come to enjoy and learn from the many different things I'll be writing about.